Of Tumblr and stuff

 There are a couple of topics I feel like addressing this week.

The first being the olderboygreyshorts3 tumblr was started a fair while back but it has a number of inherent issues that make blogging on it difficult, nearly all going back to this sites actions with the account.

In short order they are:

Inability to post on the main Tumblr with statement invalid tumblrlog showing even though there are three posts on it and I can alter the avatar.

Inability to delete the main and with it the account to restart.

Limited functions on the usable secondary Tumblrs that doesn’t include being able to like from it, like I’d rather of had this as my main which would of made more sense.

Because of  the first, it is difficult to block posts on the secondaries using the normal techniques  so you have to manually copy and paste details to the blocklist. That is tedious.

Because of this and the content is duplicated on pasttimesforever10 with more followers on a separate account I plan to discontinue this Tumblr by next weekend.

Thus this weeks posts will be the winding down ones before it is paused.

The second is post two of what I call reference photographs by which I mean pictures that do encapsulate how mentally I see me which is more problematic on Tumblr (and why we have blogs!).

I saw this which was "conversion" from long trousers on a blog but was not to happy with how they had got the colours so redid it so in a way it's my edit of an edit.

This is the closest yet to how I see the schoolboy side of me with a boy looking more around the eleven mark but as we all know some boys always looked older and others younger for being around the same age.

It's the look I emulate.

The other is the Cub me, around 10 so heading towards being moved up to Scouts but enjoying his remaining time, exercising responsibility in looking after the younger members, helping Akela out feeling confident, loving an adventure.

This how the LB side of is more at.

Resting but relieved

 

I'm kind of resting this week after going for my vaccination on Saturday early evening as unfortunately there were no slots for my GP practise at the mass vaccination centre locally during the weekdays.

I went in GSS and Grey with blue striped Turn Over Top socks cos I'm me, LB and that's all there is to it.

It was extremely busy although very well organized with loads of people in and a few waiting outside for the almost obligatory hand sanitizing and  taking of your details before you are given your card ready to proceed to the next free vaccination station.

There they check your allergies, if you've had a covid test recently, had a fever and so on before delivering the vaccination into the top of your arm.

Because of the type of vaccine I was given, I had to wait for fifteen minutes in case of any immediate reactions (super rare but can happen) before going home.

You do have a information pack that tells you a lot about the vaccine, known very short term side effects and what to do in the unlikely event experience anything unlisted or running for longer.

Moving on into 2021

In this anything that doesn't quite slot into the either the original blog or that uniformed schoolboy sometimes I do publish some kind of a reflection on the year and other times I just don't.

I suppose the first thing to say was the year was challenging when every single tumblr account of mine was terminated and equally two months later so was my Wordpress blogs so not only did I lose a bunch of Tumblr blogs, I also lost the back ups for them.

That was the reason why having found it, I restored the original blog to provide some of the history and background that never was in that uniformed school boy and that would function more as a tumblr replacement.

I did re-establish That Traditional Schoolboy (TSB) on Tumblr, an age regression centred one (That Smol Boy) and a more general facts, adventure and boyhood interests on (A Traditional Schoolboy) but I am under no illusion that what goes up can go down and that the only way to publish securely what I want is on my own blogs.

That fact does limit what I can post and the ability to publish sequences of posts  without being misunderstood before being terminated.

One facet of this blog tends to be discussion around what boyhood means, past issues around how that affects self image and recovery from all of that which in last year had the struggles of living with Coronavirus restrictions added to the mix.

For all that Coronavirus brought, I moved past many of those issues facing fears head on, exploring and actually enjoying being that boy all over again as with much of the community off work or working from home our worlds crossed and I was accepted for just being that, getting on with life, following the guidance.

I did get away at the start of the year with adventures that in hindsight set me up for the remainder and it was the year that I decided to take the plunge and go back not to just boyhood in so many of its trappings but also to have my shorts taken a good way up to where they were back then.

Mine had been like many of biological age boys of today on or only just above the knee short trousers because they were not long (yuck) but nothing like the short trousers we had then or even adults did wear a leisure wear in the mid nineties.

To be out as I was a week before Christmas exploring, scrambling on your knees in the winter sun with most of legs exposed glistening is and was so evocative of that time I felt just like a ten or possibly twelve year old boy just playing outdoors.

Short trousers of that length are so me, something I feel comfortable in my own skin wearing that I can't see myself wearing except in the most adverse conditions anything else that indeed that's what I'm wearing typing this with temperatures at minus two degrees c.

I did talk a bit across the year about the need to respect and provide separate spaces for boys and men as much as we all would agree equality of opportunity helping us grow as people which I certainly have this last year

It's been very much a boys own year for me learning to embrace and enjoy the male world being out with people and channelling those more masculine interests I had back then and indeed one are where it showed was just a few days ago. 

I had long missed my original action man figures, something I fondly recall playing both on my own and with other boys with, the memory of clearly showing that the odd untypical interest aside, I was just like every other boy of my era.

Well, I finally got a replacement for Christmas and  undoing it took my right back to that era, dressed as I was in school uniform with short trousers in the company of my parents on Christmas day opening it, I was smiling again.

My boyhood hero and I were reunited as one. Boy and Man back together, playing having fun.

2021 cannot be anything like the period before I found ASB and that came back too and Tumblr because I have moved on so much in that time certain of being just a regular boy in a adult body who loves being himself.

Mirror images

It's very much the autumn here which you can tell by both the start of the falling leaves, the soft orangy sun casting on to trees and grass and like on a morning like today it's a bit chilly when you wake up which is something I well remember from my school days.

Like one minute it is almost like summer as we play footie during recess, a number of us stripping down even to shorts to play - in truth we'd had then under our trousers  to save time changing - before changing back for the second set of periods of the morning

Photo credit: badger44grammar44

Like him (H) who in this recent picture from his latest tumblr, I too wear grey shorts and traditional turn over socks throughout the year and in a good number of ways he's been very much an influence on me giving a clear idea of how a modern schoolboy routed in the past might be cos unlike some ASB's I'm not just about nostalgia or replicating exactly that past I am that mindset today and am to an extent informed by modern culture as much as he sees himself as a traditional schoolboy.

You might say we're mirror images and he's one boy I can look in the eye and know he and I are on the same page.

I have the right...

to Structure

Something I wish to talk about this week  is the role of Structure within LB/ASB life.

Something that isn't said enough is what enables you to let out your LB/ASB side is that somebody else handles the responsibilities so you need not concern yourself with them, that in other words you do not have to be your own adult (assuming you are fully capable of it).

That totally frees you up to be that adult child because you know, you cannot, will not even be allowed to fall because the "responsible adult" be they a Caregiver in a DD or DM/lb relationship or the Cglre  Dxlb or Mxlb x taking out the "Dominant" with the BDSM kink overtones and in effect making it more paternalistic "Daddy or Mummy" 2 (adult) little boy or a ASB school centred Teacher/Head Teacher steps in ensuring you do not come to any harm.

You are that little boy to them and you will allow them to address you as such.

They also by consent deal with handling any dangerous, rude or otherwise risky behaviour  on your part by stepping in and being the one who disciplines you whither or not it it involves any or no corporal punishment.

The point is, by providing that structure, they enable you to be just you, the adult little boy just being a boy knowing he'll be cared for, safe and not likely to get into situations that work against his needs.

Bringing out the boy

I'm not generally into anything beyond uniform outside of play wear and my footie strip although with many actual schools being off for some days there's an argument for saying the LB/ASB can presently take his cue from events and alter his presentation a little as much as I'm for dress shirts and ties normally. 

Tailoring matters I think in this life and one aspect around tailoring that does make a difference I feel is when it comes to getting the right leg length for you because newer generations are taller than we were at their age and many suppliers are only supplying longer inside leg lengths.

What may be just above the knee on them is more on or even only just above the bottom of my knees almost into Knickerbocker  territory.

By taking up to six inches, while not standing out too much in public settings that on a grey pair redefines me as a boy, a little longer than what I wore then and presents me in a way I feel most comfortable  with.

I like how these shorts presents me as without making super obvious, they do not smooth away my maleness.

Being comfortable in your own skin matters.

That's the difference finding and having your inside leg on your shorts adjusted makes and it is so worth it.

The past is the future going forward

This week is a good deal cooler than much of last week which you do notice when you're as out and about as I am.

There are a few topic I do wish to talk through this week one of which is the frequent outages at MisterPoll where there's a Shorts/LB poll where Robbie is currently talking though plans because that site has no messaging and one concern was maintaining contacts in addition while information exchanged may be stored and conversations continued. 

Another is that as I in time work on a "pet project" of mine, I am removing the last links to the malaise ready for such time I will be able to go out with others as just me ditching a small outdoor bag and a tote bag I use for shopping for something I truly feel more comfortable being seen with as an LB.

The last thing is the huge progress I have made in the last two and a bit years from arriving at Tumblr sorting all that out is paying off as I'm now accepted by my extended family and the wider community as LB with them being comfortable with me in uniform just like that in public being accepted. I have "Come out".

I've managed to pull down an adult perception of me that never worked while retaining my place within it with men saying "Good boy" as they treat me as a son publicly able to be a part of the community but as an adult boy in it.

That to me is so lovely.